From The Void
by Dcoop7400
Summary: This is my first original story so all constructive criticism is welcome. I had to use the mythology tag in order for this thing to fit somewhere but it does have those aspects. One name in this is borrowed as a placeholder. Thank you and please do enjoy! Btw this is only the first of what I hope to be many chapters.


From The Void

In the beginning, while the universe was nothing but void and darkness, a light emerged from the void and with it came life, and as it came, the darkness retreated. The light burned the darkness, it erased it and stopped it. The light expanded across the universe, bringing life and light to the lifeless voids. However, the light could not expand for forever so it began to leave small portions of itself dotted across the universe to keep the void lit when its main presence had left. Soon, the universe knew light as a constant and the darkness was all but unknown. As time went on, life began to appear in parts of the universe and the light began to manifest itself and it took on shape and watched over its creations. In the far reaches of the universe where the light was faint, remained the formless dark and long it waited and bided its time, never forgiving the light and never forgetting what it did. The light began to create forms to control parts of the universe and ensure its safety. Firstly, the light created Time who would maintain the flow of the universe. Next came Space who filled the universe and kept it together. Once Time and Space assumed their roles, the light slept and would not wake for millennia to come, for it had faith in its creations. However, with the light gone, the darkness began to come back into the universe, and within it was a small manifestation, named Kaos.

After another hundred thousand years, Kaos had found its place, a place where it could remain and feed and hide from the burning light. This place was a small rock named Earth by its inhabitants and it was unprotected by any other force. The dark had filled all space between the light's reaches and now it slept, knowing it could do no more and its puppet Kaos would run rampant in its stead. With this upset of balance between light and dark and the presence of Kaos on Earth, four manifestations began to take shape within the light during its slumber and these four moved on Earth with a fury to match the burning flame of a star. Earth was sheltered in the light of Sol and yet a dark manifestation had taken refuge there. The four from the light descended on Earth and their arrival stirred Kaos from its isolation. They all met at the edge of Sol's light and there they sought to make a deal with Kaos, for it to return to the dark and leave this place. However, Kaos would not have it and refused and made to attack the four in a rush. It struck one before the others could subdue and banish him to the void. The four made for Earth and they remained in that system, within the light of Sol. The four took on names for their new positions as the watchers of Earth: Solace, who would keep the light shining bright and would sleep within Sol to keep her alive; Gaia, who would be as a mother to the planet and would keep the planet itself safe; Orodruin, who would slumber within the Earth to keep it warm and whole for the planet's life; and lastly there was the manifestation who was struck by Kaos, who assumed the name of Dûm. This manifestation was tasked with overlooking the humans on Earth and with this duty he assumed the solid manifestation of a man and he walked among them for many years to come. Many years passed before another great threat loomed, and when it came, it would shake the Sol system and ripple throughout the universe.

Humanity progressed at a slower pace than other races of life in the universe and it was far more violent than others that existed as well. Dûm's presence amongst the humans had begun to take its toll on his manifestation. Their violent and hostile tendencies as well as his isolation on the mortal, non-celestial plane amongst them had begun to almost dim his light within him. He began to grow jealous of the others, Sol and Orodruin slumbering and Gaia just watching on. Dûm had been tasked with watching the humans from a closer point of view and with their constantly rising numbers, he could barely keep up with them on his own. After another hundred years, he had had enough. He ascended and called forth Sol, Orodruin and Gaia and spoke with them. He begged them to let him shed the pitiful and restricting form he'd taken and take a more controlling role over the lives of the humans. All of them simultaneously rejected his proposal, saying that Gaia was to watch over the Earth and its inhabitants. Dûm protested saying that his task required more power than they knew and in order to control the increasing numbers of humans, he needed to be able to use his full power. However, as Dûm argued with them, the others began to see a darkness arising in him. He became more hostile and louder, he made threats towards Gaia until finally, his rage subsided. A thought had occurred in his mind, something he wouldn't have to tell the others. Dûm conceded defeat and went back to Earth and let the others return to their slumber. A cunning had awoken inside of him, a sort of dark flame. A flame that did not emit light or warmth, but rather absorbed light and emitted cold.

Dûm immediately set to work on his plan. He sought to create rulers to keep control over not just the humans, but also maintain their population. He used his powers to create four beings, each with a sole purpose on Earth. These beings were not of normal light as Dûm was and his "siblings" were. They were darker and they seemed to almost hold some remnant of Kaos whom had since fell apart in the void. Dûm continued to create them and give them more solid forms and eventually he had four men of supreme stature and strength and power. He looked at each of his creations and in each he saw rage, darkness, malice, and power. He walked in front of each one and named them individually. The first appeared pale and stank of rot; this one he named Famine, after the human word for times with no food and death. The next appeared more human than anything but was much larger in stature. Dûm named this one Conquest, for he was to conquer the humans when the time came. The next two were different from the others. They were almost pure darkness with no light in them at all. They were both very similar in stature and appearance and they were filled with malice. The first, Dûm named War. Upon receiving his new name, War burst into a hate fueled flame which blinded all who saw him. The flame subsided and he looked straight back at Dûm and laughed. Dûm looked upon the final creation and this appeared to be the darkest of them all and inside of him burned a black, cold flame. Dûm thought for some time over what to call this one. Finally, he settled on the name the humans used for the one thing they feared and the one thing that they were unable to avoid: Death. With his four creations named and fully formed, Dûm had but now to give them a purpose. It was at this moment that he glimpsed something that would change his existence forever. He witnessed the End.

Dûm fell into a trance-like sleep and when he awoke, he stood above the universe. Only, something was wrong with it. It seemed too dark, like the light had just gone. He looked closer and saw that a thick inky blackness lay over the stars. It was the old darkness and it had covered the universe once again. Dûm felt immense sorrow and grief, a feeling that surprised even himself. Despite what he'd just done, despite his dark plot to overthrow light, he felt guilt and sorrow for the universe. He continued to look into the darkness and as he did so, he saw a light. It was faint and waning, but it was a light and it was familiar to him. It was Sol. He moved towards it and what he saw shocked him to his core and infuriated him. At the edge of Sol's light, on all sides, a fierce battle raged. Solace had awoken and put forth their light as bright and fiercely as they could. Orodruin had moved to the planet behind Earth and set the planet ablaze with the fiercest light it could muster. Dûm looked for Gaia but he saw her nowhere upon the battlefield. That was, until he looked upon Earth. It was dark. All the light had left it, and barely able to maintain form was the battered and broken Gaia. Dûm moved straight to her, but he could not communicate with her. She lay atop the bodies of humans whom she had tried to protect but sadly failed. Dûm was infuriated with the darkness for causing this, that was, until he heard an all too familiar laugh. He turned around and saw a bright light coming towards them. He felt joy, knowing his creations would help. War stepped into view and Dûm was stricken with disbelief. In one hand, War held a dark, flaming sword and in the other he held a head. It was the head of Famine. Dûm stared on in awe and utter shock. As he was about to begin bellowing curses at War, War's own light seemed to dim. The whole planet dimmed and darkened almost to pitch. A sound of massive wings could be heard overhead and War fell silent. A loud impact could be heard from behind the dying form of Gaia. Dûm looked and what he saw truly broke him inside. He was immobilized by fear and disbelief. Behind Gaia stood an unholy form, the likes of which had never been seen in the universe before. With massive wings of black plumage and shrouded in a pitch cloak that seemed to burn in black flames stood Death. In his hands he held a scythe which seemed to burn a cold bright as the material it was made from caught War's light. Dûm could do nothing but watch as his creation raised its scythe over Gaia and swung down, beheading the wonderful being that gave her life to protect the humans of Earth. As Dûm began to wonder what was happening before his eyes, he saw War leap over the corpse of Gaia and strike at Death. This was beyond unexpected, for War had appeared to be on the same side as Death in this. However, when Dûm had turned his back on War, his expression changed from laughter to horror at the sight of Death and Gaia. He was enraged at the sight of his brother. Dûm watched as Death knocked aside blow after blow from War's huge sword and then, with the speed of a blink, Death swung his scythe. A loud scream could be heard and the scene went pitch. War had fallen. All the creations and manifestations had fallen to the dark. Dûm sat there and watched on as the creation he named Death lived up to its name. The only sight that was visible was the cold gleam of the scythe. As Dûm saw it fade away, he awoke. Back in his own time. He heard a voice in his head faintly whisper, "That is the End." and then it was gone.

Dûm sat up and looked around. There stood the four, just as he had left them. He was relieved to see Famine and Conquest alive again as well as War. However, his outlook towards Death had changed. He glared at Death and immediately approached him. He began to shout at Death and threatened to destroy him if he ever crossed his brothers or his superiors. Death recoiled in shock at Dûm's behavior towards him. War stepped in between them both and held Dûm back at arm's length. Dûm conceded and withdrew. He was now in an utter state of panic over what he'd seen. He quickly left the four and immediately summoned his siblings again. Solace, Gaia, and Orodruin all appeared above Earth and Dûm immediately started telling them of what he'd done and what he'd seen happen. Orodruin laughed at him for saying these things and Solace simply shrugged it off. Until he got to the death of Gaia. They all stopped and stared at him. Gaia asked how something could kill her and Dûm was forced to tell them of the four creations he had made in secret. They were all appalled. Dûm could do nothing but stand there and bow his head in disgrace as the others shouted and cursed at him for his betrayal. Dûm spouted apologies in between their curses. Finally, the others stopped upon realizing that Dûm had fallen silent. They saw in his eyes true and raw terror as he pleaded for their help to stop what he had started before the End was able to occur. The three stood away from Dûm whilst talking amongst themselves as to what should be done with the four creations now residing on Earth. Orodruin believed that they should all be destroyed whilst Solace thought only the creation in question, Mortuus as the three had decided to call it, should be destroyed and the others allowed to continue on. Gaia had to think. She couldn't believe someone could kill her. After what seemed to Dûm hours upon hours, the three came to him. They said to him that they wished to meet the four. Dûm called them and they appeared just as he'd left them only moments ago back on Earth. Gaia, Orodruin, and Solace looked them over and as their eyes reached Death, they glared at him. Death glared right back and rage began to build in him. He'd only existed for a few minutes and he was already being looked at like a freak of the universe. The three pulled Dûm to the side and began questioning him and talking to him in hushed yet furious tones. War looked at Death and just cocked his head as if to say "I don't know". Death watched them talk and the glances and glares from the four infuriated him. He began to walk in a circle and glare right back at the beings talking and looking over their shoulders at him. He shouted at them asking if they were done and they stopped, looked at him and walked over. What they said next would cause Death to erupt in anger.

They told Death that he had two options, leave the Sol system and never return or be cast into the Heart of Andromeda where he would be torn apart on the event horizon. Death questioned why he was being forced to pick between these two options and what he'd done. Gaia began to explain but Orodruin cut her off. Orodruin walked right up to Death and pushed him to the ground whilst screaming about how he was a murderer and a traitor. Death looked up in fury and confusion. He stood up with lightning speed and seemed to grow darker and taller. He spoke with a voice that seemed disconnected and hollow, as if it was coming from the void itself. All of space seemed to darken as he spoke, with every word he uttered, a light went out. Dûm covered his face and bowed his head in anguish. Death stopped himself midway through his sentence as he saw the terror he was causing among the others. He looked back down at Earth and immediately went towards it with all the speed he could muster, trying to flee the fury of the beings who wished him dead. Orodruin was the first to pursue, ablaze with a white hot rage screaming coward as he went. War was second to go, then Conquest, then Gaia. As the beings drew closer to Earth, they found themselves in a large open field. Death was standing off in the distance. He appeared to be kneeling and he remained silent as the four approached him, War with his sword drawn and pointed at his brother. Conquest was on his right, and in his hand he held a stark white spear he made from the emitted light of Sol whilst in space. The first to reach the kneeling figure of Death was Orodruin. With every step he took, the ground at his feet cracked and burned while the air around him seemed to burn a white hot haze. He kept walking towards Death until he stood directly above him. Death appeared to be weeping and shrouded in a black mist. Orodruin grabbed Death's head and pulled him to his feet and in one fluid motion, he drove him head first into the ground, causing rocks to rise up from the Earth around them in a circle. Orodruin repeatedly slammed Death into the ground until his form went limp. He motioned for War and Conquest to come to him. He requested their weapons. The two stopped and were taken aback by this request. They were being told to aid in the destruction of their brother. Orodruin began shouting and as he did, the Earth began to shake and fracture. Gaia could feel it, as if her very self was being ripped and shaken and fractured. She dropped to her knees and began shrieking for Orodruin to stop. Upon seeing what he was doing to her, he stopped and dropped the limp figure of Death. What came next happened within the span of a single blink.

As the figure of Death fell to the ground, his muscles appeared to tense and from his back sprouted two massive wings of jet black plumage, capped with claws the color of obsidian rock. He launched himself into the air and the sky began to darken. This was no ordinary darkness that came with night, this was darkness reminiscent of the ancient dark that once covered the universe at the Beginning. No light shone upon them and yet, as they looked up, a light appeared. However, this was no light as they'd all come to know, this was a cold, dead light and it seemed to be very metallic. A loud rush could be heard as the light grew and a faint click was heard as the light vanished for the briefest of moments and reappeared. Next came a dull thud and a shriek of rage and hatred. Amongst the chaos, a light pierced the darkness and down came Solace and Famine and Dûm. The scene before them, now illuminated by Solace's light, was truly a sight to behold. On the ground lay an arm, severed from whom, they knew not at the time. Alongside the limb lay a figure with a sword in its back as well as a spear. It emitted a faint hiss and from the two wounds came a jet black mist as dark as the void of old. It rose and coiled into the air like smoke from a fire and then the wind scattered it across the Earth and the body moved no more. The inky blackness across the sky faded and disappeared and with the light returning, Solace further inspected the scene before him and found that the severed limb he had seen belonged to Orodruin. He was kneeling, flanked by War and Conquest who seemed to be conversing with the injured being. Orodruin looked over at his severed limb and upon making eye contact with it, it burst into white fire and was gone. His wound did the same and suddenly was healed. Solace went to Gaia and carried her back to the others. Famine went to his brothers and they received him with gladness and joy, feelings new to them in their brief existence. Orodruin stood and told Solace to wake Gaia. Once she was awake, Orodruin asked her to open a pit, a pit so deep that it would never see the light of day and humans would never reach it. Without hesitation, she complied and produced pit matching Orodruin's description. Orodruin lifted the lifeless body of Death and using one of the stones of the stone ring, he split it and put the body inside, sealing it once again with fires from the center of the Earth. He cast the stone into the pit and requested that Gaia seal it once again. She did so and Orodruin simply sighed. He nodded to his siblings and left. He returned to the core to rest and heal, for his wound was most grievous and was inflicted upon him by the Dark and therefore could not heal by normal means. Solace left as well, returning to Sol without a word. Only Gaia and Dûm remained along with the three creations. Dûm looked at his three creations and decided to give them a purpose in their existence. He knew they could not directly interact with the humans, for they were celestial in nature and their presence amongst the humans would result in catastrophic events. He gave each a steed and told them to make haste to a place of their choosing, away from the humans. Each of them was told something by Dûm before they rode off, away from the grave and across the world. Dûm looked back at Gaia and she simply smiled and vanished. He was now left alone, standing in a broken ring of stones looking down at the spot where his creation was buried. He believed the threat was over and he found comfort in that, comfort in the fact that his siblings' lives were safe and that his creations were safe as well. He returned to his human form and took a new name: Vita, an ancient human word for life. For the next couple of centuries, Vita and his siblings never met again and his three creations weren't heard from. Life in the Sol system seemed to fall back into normality and peace, that was until one day, something happened, an event that was never seen before and has never been seen before in the whole of existence.

In the human Earth year 2006 A.D., two children were walking back to their orphanage on the outskirts of New York after spending an entire day in the city. They had developed a close friendship with each other whilst living in the orphanage and they were commonly considered brothers, although neither was related to the other. They had been both been delivered to Saint Matthews Children's Home on the same day and from then on, one was never seen without the other. The circumstances of their deliveries were odd however. One had been delivered at midday in a basket with a single note with a single letter written ornately in the middle: N. The other had been delivered in person, however, the person delivering the infant child sounded weak and their voice was raspy and hoarse. They simply handed the child to the caretakers and hobbled off and that was all. The children had no names upon their arrivals and so the caretakers took it upon themselves to name them. The first was a boy with dark hair and dark eyes and he was the one delivered with the note upon which was the letter "N"; therefore, the caretakers named him Nicholas after the Saint the Home was named after: Nicholas Matthews. The second child was also a boy with sandy hair and light eyes and he bore no note or indication of what his name could be. The caretakers wondered for a long time over what to call him and settled for William after one of their fathers whom had worked in the Home for his whole life. That was all six years ago and the boys were now seven years old and the best of friends. On their walk back from the city, the boys saw a car drive past them and since the only building down this road was the orphanage, their faces lit up. They looked at each other and nodded, a silent understanding of what each was thinking: they would now sprint down the lane all whilst examining the car as they approached, burst in the doors, run to their room and start betting on who would go next. This was typical of the pair, to bet on who was next to be adopted. They never bet on themselves however. They'd decided to stop after age four. Now, while the boys were very young, they were exceedingly bright. They seemed to know the answer to almost any question and they knew things that the caretakers never thought two seven-year old kids could (or rather _should_ ) know. However, the reason the boys had stopped betting on themselves is because they'd each been considered for adoption about seven times a piece but the children made it a point to both the caretakers and the couples that they would not leave without the other. This put all of the couples back due to the fact that all the couples only wanted one child. These sessions ended with the boys being sent to their room and another child leaving with a new family. They never felt upset at themselves or the other, rather, they decided to stop being "interviewed", called themselves brothers and turned the whole thing into a gambling game. On occasion, they would even convince some of the other children to join them.

As the pair reached the front doors of the home, they ran right into the head caretaker. She simply looked at them and smiled, tears rolling from her eyes. The two looked at each other and then back at her and cocked their heads to the side in confusion. She hugged them both and told them to head inside and into the office. Suddenly it dawned on the boys: a couple wanted them both. It took everything they had to stay composed and not run and scream in joy. They walked in and met the couple: the man appeared to be around thirty something years of age and very sharply dressed as well as tall and a stern looking face but his warm smile and calm, cool eyes offset his sternness; the woman appeared to be around the same age as her husband, she was slender, average height, she spoke with a soft voice and she too appeared stern but just like her husband, her smile was warm and her eyes, loving. The boys sat on the couch opposite them and talked with them for well near an hour. They found out that the man was named Michael and his wife was Lauren and they were both in their mid-thirties and they were interested in adopting two children. As the pair told them about themselves and learned more and more about the couple, their minds became set: they were **it**. By the end, when the couple asked if they wanted to be adopted by them, they said yes before the couple finished the sentence. The boys ran to their room and began gathering the small amount of possessions they'd accumulated over the years via their games and whatnot. They put everything into their small suitcases and headed downstairs to head out with their new parents to their new home. The boys were ecstatic and far away, so was someone else. The boys thought their lives could only get better from here on out, yet, little did they know, they would soon experience a tragedy unlike anything they could imagine.


End file.
